India in Revolt 


FAMINE AND MILITARISTIC TERRORISM FORCE REVOLUTION 


By Ed. Gammons 


Your Mention of Martial Law Really Makes My Flesh Creep. Martial Law Is 
Only a Fine Name for the Suspension of All Law. It May Be Necessary for Anything, 
I Know, Some Day or Other, but Today It Would Be Neither More nor Less Than 
a Gigantic Advertisement of National Failure.’’ Letter from Lord Morley, then Sec- 
retary of State for India, to Lord Minto, then Viceroy of India, dated February 3, 


1910. 
right 1917 by the Macmillan Co.) 


There seems to be practically no doubt of the exist- 
ence of a revolution in India. <A provisional govern- 
ment has been established in Cabul, the capital of 
Afghanistan, according to Reuter’s News Agency, with 
Professor Barkatullah, formerly of the Tokio Imperial 
University, as the leading member. The governments 
of both Afghanistan and Russia, the dispatch added, 
expressed their desire to help. On August 25th in 
London, Sir Harrington Verney Lovett, a former In- 
dian official, warned the Parliamentary Committee in 
charge of the Montagu Reform Bill that ‘‘the Indian 
extremists are increasing rapidly and a strong lead 
from England is necessary to protect from ruin both 
British and Indian interests.’’ 

The causes of the revolution are: (1) the long and 


(By permission of the Macmillan Co. from ‘“‘Morley’s Recollections.’ 


“Throughout the Broad Miles of India, Men Will Harbor a Just Resentment 
Against the Infringement of Acknowledged Principle of Right, the Defiance of Estab- 
lished Canons of Justice and the Contemptuous Disregard of Public Opinion, Which 
Vainly Protested Against the Deprivation by the Authorities of the Right of Compe- 
tent and Unfettered Defense for Accused Persons. 
victed Have Been Subjected to Sentences, Which Are Brutal Exhibitions of Superior 
Force, Unredeemed by One Tinge of Judicial Balance.” 
legal authority, in the Calcutta Bengalee, July 30, 1919. 


Copy- 


Those Who Have Been Con- 
Eardley Norton, British 


continued misgovernment of India; (2) the enactment 
of the Rowlatt Bills and the drastic punishment of the 
protesting Indians, and (3) Mahommedan dissatisfac- 
tion arising out of the dismemberment of the Empire 
of Turkey and the provisions of the peace treaty. A 
few people, including Mrs. Annie Besant, trot out 
the well-worn bogy ‘‘Bolshevik gold,’’ but those in 
touch with the Indian situation find the cause of the 
enormous discontent rather in the burial grounds 
of India ‘‘literally swamped with corpses’’ as the 
British official report stated it, in the wholesale public 
whippings and terrifying sentences of the courts- 
martial and in the widespread terrorism practiced in 
every province of India by the British satrapy. 


ROWLATT BILLS PRECIPITATE REVOLUTION 


The infamous Rowlatt> Bills, depriving an accused 
of the right of a trial by jury, of producing witnesses, 
of hiring legal defense, and legalizing torture, created 
a whirlwind of revolt. The Rowlatt Commission, 
which framed these bills, stated that the discontent 
throughout India necessitated these ultra-restrictive 
measures. The real cause, careful observers state, was 
their fear that ‘‘There will, especially in the Punjab, 
be a large number of disbanded soldiers, among whom 
ut may be possible to stir wp discontent.’’? These In- 
dian soldiers, like the soldiers of many other nations, 
were told that the winning of the war meant ‘‘world- 
wide democracy’? and the government very wisely 
thought that the sight of thirty-two millions of graves 
of Indians, who starved to death in ten months 
whilst ‘‘India’s exportation of cereals was maintained 
at an even higher level than in 1917-18 when she 
shipped abroad 5,400,000 tons,’’ according to the Lon- 
don Times, was a mighty poor demonstration of the 
working out of a benevolent democracy! The epi- 
demic of starvation suicides which recently occurred 
in India cannot be labeled discontent. ‘And the whole- 
sale exportation of grain at the same time cannot 


fail to excite thought—at least among the starving. 

The starving hundreds of millions of Indians are not 
and were not armed to the extent that they could take 
the field against Britain. According to the official 
figures of the British Government in 1917 there was 
one firearm to every ten square miles, to one man in 
every 1800 persons and: to every four villages or towns. 
The importation of arms is impossible. With British 
guns watching the passes in the north, naval guns 
covering’ the seaports, a ‘‘British sphere of influence’’ 
on one side (unfortunate Persia) and _ partitioned 
China on the other other, there is no access to any 
friend. 

India is hemmed in. The only possible revolution 
is a national strike. That is about what is oceurring. 
Hindu and Mahommedan are united and are staying 
united despite every trick and manceuvre of the com- 
mon enemy. For British provocateurs desecrate Hindu 
and Mahommedan temples of worship in efforts to 
embroil these once warring factions. 

We will now examine the workings of the courts- 
martial and ‘the identity of their victims. 


MARTIAL LAW BRUTALITIES 


The substitution of martial law for the common 
jurisprudence was an act of panic. The subsequent 
sentences and unprovoked massacres proved this. It 
was mass terrorism. It seemed as if the British 
Government considered that the Indian people had 
suffered the limit, that the disappearance of every 
hope of the amelioration of the country’s condition had 
driven home the fact that the continuance of British 
rule meant national extinction, and that only a display 
of ruthless force, with firing squads, aerial bombing and 
machine gun massacre, could avert a general revolu- 
tion. That policy is in full sway, but it has only 
intensified the discontent and, as Lord Morley pre- 
dicted nearly ten years ago, the drumhead court- 
martial is ‘‘neither more nor less than a gigantic 
advertisement of national failure.’’ 

In the Punjab the administration of martial law 
embraces everything. In Lahore everything comes 
within its purview. All the students of the local col- 
lege must report four times a day to Lieut.-Colonel 
Frank Johnson. Three local leaders were arrested and 
threatened with deportation for the offense of prepar- 
ing a telegram of protest to be sent to the Secretary of 
State for India.in England. The local military satraps 
even go into the business of price-fixing. This innova- 


MACHINE GUNS MOW 


The Amritsur massacre last April enraged all India. 
The British communique read: ‘‘This meeting was 
dispersed by a small foree of Indian troops. The 
casualties were heavy.’’ The casualties were indeed 
heavy. After the machine guns finished, 1600, out of 
the 6000 unarmed people attending the meeting, lay on 
the ground dead and wounded. On May 28th, Secre- 
tary of State Montagu reported in the House of Com- 
mons that disturbances in the Punjab resulted in the 
deaths of eight Europeans and four hundred Indians. 
These two British reports, one vague probably because 
of the heavy slaughter, and the other definite, are 
convincing proof that the Indians are not responsible 
for this saturnalia of blood and terror. It is difficult 
to get data on the number of all those killed by the 
British. Rada Krishna, an editor in the Punjab, was 


recently sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for 


VICTIMS FROM EVERY 


Religious and social reformers, captains of industry, 
bank managers, proprietors and editors of newspapers, 


college presidents and professors, barristers at law—. 


all of those are represented in the victims of the latest 
attack on India. In Gujranwala, the Punjab, last 
April twenty of the most prominent citizens, includ- 
ing six barristers, were marched in irons through the 
principal streets on their way to jail. Instead of 
minimizing the discontent, this public degradation of 
the best citizens of Gujranwala but incensed the popu- 
lace and the result was wholesale arrests. 

The most prominent victim of the imperialistic terror- 
ists in the Punjab was Lala Harkishan Lal, the leader 
of the constitutionalist party in that province for up- 
wards of twenty years, and familiarly referred to as 
the Indian Napoleon of Finance. He was active for 
many years in organizing native banks in opposition to 
British financial interests and became a marked man 
in consequence. He has been transported ‘for life to the 
Andaman Island penal colony for ‘‘ waging war against 


tion has a two-fold effect. It allays economic dis- 
content, occasioned by the exceedingly high prices, and 
it is fatal to the business of nationalist merchants, who 
participated in the satyagraha (passive resistance) pro- 
test against the enactment of the Rowlatt Bulls, there- 
by incurring the disapprobation of local officialdom. 
Young boys playing tip-cat on the streets drew sen- 
tences of seven years. They were considered drilling 
in order ‘‘to wage war against his Majesty the Em- 
peror of India’’ (George the Fifth of England). In 
Lyallpur the natives were commanded to descend from 
their elephants and all other modes of conveyances 
and salaam to ‘‘gazetted European or civil or military 
officers of His Majesty’s services.’’ This extraordinary 
order was issued by Lieut.-Colonel C. §S. Hodgson. 
One or more Indians were transported for life for the 
offense of burning the effigy of a government detective. 
Enraged natives beat an English woman school-teacher 
in Amritsur. Seven were hanged for it and one sen- 
tenced to life imprisonment. Men were whipped into 
insensibility in the streets of Lahore for the most 
trivial offenses. Accused persons were denied the right 
of choosing their counsel, even the nominated counsel 
were forbidden to take notes of the evidence and news- 
paper men were rigidly excluded. 


DOWN PROTESTANTS 


publishing native reports of the shooting down of 
demonstrators in Delhi by the British on Satyagraha 
Day, April 6th. The native press is so completely un- 
der the thumb of the government that it is practically 
impossible to get any news from it. Since the estab- 
lishment of martial law in the Punjab, 73 have been 
sentenced to death, 147 have received sentences of from 
ten years to hfe imprisonment, 204 have been sen- 
teneed to terms varying from six months to fourteen 
years, 20 papers have been suppressed and the public 
floggings have been innumerable. The details of the 
Amritsur massacre have been gleaned by lifting the 
corner of the curtain. What lies beyond is hidden by 
the censor. Imperialism after the war is the same as 
it was before the war, grasping, greedy, relentless and 
ruthless. It needs closed doors and censors to hide 
its cruelties and real character from a revolting world. 


GRADE OF SOCIETY 


His Majesty the Emperor of India,’’ and all his 
property declared forfeited. His offense was keep- 
ing shops closed in protest against the enactment of 
the Rowlatt Bills and feeding the poor who depended for 
provisions on the shops. 

Shankar Lal, secretary of the Delhi Home Rule 
League, an active newspaper editor and prominent 
leader of the Swadeshi industrial movement, has been 
arrested without warrant. Shankar Lal started many 
Swadeshi Co-Operative Stores, despite the warnings of 
government officials, and will doubtless pay the -price. 

Manohar Lal, during his term, carried off the highest 
honors in Cambridge University in economics. He is 
(or was) professor of Political Economy in the Univer- 
sity of Calcutta. He was seized without warrant and 
thrown into a cell, six feet by nine. His fate is unknown. 

Kali Nath Roy, editor of the Lahore Tribune, was 
sentenced to three years for telling the truth about the 
Rowlatt Bills and the way England machine-gunned 


Indian protestants. A vigorous agitation caused the 
reduction of the sentence to three months. 

Shahbaz Akhgar, editor of The Punjabi, is ordered 
‘to abstain from sending or receiving personally or 
through a third party, by post or by telegraph, or by 
hand or by any other means, direct or indirect, any writ- 
ten communication, or other matter of lke nature, to or 
from any person, whether within India or without, until 
such communication shall have been seen by the Deputy 
Commissioner of this district.’’ 

Such are the terrible criminals of this least criminal 
country in the world and such is the freedom of the 
press under the British flag in this year of the new 
‘“democracy.”’ 


If Prussianism means the murder of the unarmed, 
the coldly-caleulated starvation to death of inoffensive 
millions, the utter negation of democracy—then this 
military despotism has but moved from beneath the 
Black Eagles of Prussia to the royal standard of Great 
Britain. 

India, unarmed physically, but with high resolve and 
unflinching soul, will not submit. The blood of the 
starving peasantry cries out to the world that might is 
not, and never will be, right, and that a new generation, 
undeceived by the despoiling diplomacy of today, will 
set up new ideals and new standards of universal probity 
and peace. 

God speed that day! 


LORD MORLEY ON BRITISH TERRORISM IN INDIA 


Through the courtesy of the Macmillan Publishing 
Company of New York, we are enabled to reproduce 
from Lord Morley’s Recollections, copyright 1917 by 
the Macmillan Company, a few passages illustra- 
tive of British rule in India. Lord Morley was Sec- 
retary of State for India, 1905-1910, and keenly recog- 
nized his responsibilities. Cynical at times, he often 
revolted against the military terrorism practiced against 
an enslaved defenseless people. 

The first paragraph is Lord Morley’s estimate of the 
personnel of the Indian nationalist movement in 1905. 
The remaining paragraphs are culled from letters to 
Lord Minto, Viceroy of India during Lord Morley’s 
term as Secretary of State: 

‘‘The danger arose from a mutiny, not of sepoys about 
greased cartridges, but of educated men armed with 
modern ideas supplied from the noblest arsenals and 
proudest trophies of English literature and English 
oratory.’’ Vol. 2, Page 154. 

‘‘Shall I confess that I read one paragraph in your 
letter with a touch of mystification? It is where you say 
that you are in India, are face to face with risks that 
you ‘cannot express to people at home without being 
looked on as an alarmist.’ 
Not wise people; and as for foolish people, who cares?’’ 
Vol. 2, Page 199. Date, 1-18-07. 

‘«Then is said to have sentenced some political 
offenders (so called) to be flogged. That, I am advised, 
is not authorised by the law, either as it stood, or as it 
will stand under flogging provisions as amended... . 
Here also I have called for the papers, and we shall see. 
said to me this morning, ‘You see the great execu- 
tive officers never like or trust lawyers.’ ‘I’ll tell you 
why,’ I said, ‘it is because they don’t like or trust law: 
they, in their hearts, believe before all else the virtues 
of will and arbitrary power.’ ’’ Vol. 2, Page 257. Date, 
5-7-08. 


But what people at home? 


‘‘T must confess to you that I am watching with the 
deepest concern, and dismay the thundering sentences 
that are now being passed for sedition, ete. I read today 
that stone-throwers in Bombay are getting twelve 
months! This is really outrageous. The sentences on the 
two Tinnevellt-Tuticorin men are wholly indefensible 
one gets transportation for life, the other for ten years. 

Such sentences! They cannot stand. We 
must keep order, but excess of severity is not the path to 
order. On the contrary, it is the path to the bomb.’’ 
Vol. 2, Pages 269-70. Date, 7-2-08. 

‘*T wish you would in your next letter tell me the end 
of the story of the young Corporal, who in a fit of ex- 
citement, shot the first Native he met. What happened 
to the Corporal? Was he put on lis trial? Was he 
hanged? I cannot but honor Curzon for his famous 
affair with the Ninth Lancers, so far as I have correctly 
heard the story. If we are not strong enough to prevent 
murder, then our pharisaic glorification of the stern jus- 
tice of the Britush Raj 1s nonsense. . On the other 
hand it is idle for us to pretend to the natives that we 
wish to understand their sentiment. . . . and yet silently 
acquiesce in all these violent sentences. You will say 
to me ‘These legal proceedings are at bottom acts of war 
against rebels and locking a rebel up for life is more 
affable and polite than blowing him from a gun: you 
must not measure such sentences by the ordinary stand- 
ards of a law-court; they are the natural and proper 
penalties for Mutiny and the Judge on the bench is really 
the Provost-Marshal in.disguwse.’ Well, be it so. But if 
you push me into a position of this sort—and I don’t 
deny that it is a perfectly tenable position, if you hke— 
then I’ll drop reforms. I won’t talk any more about the 
New Spirit of the Times and I’ll tell Asquith that I’m 
not the man for the work.’’ Vol. 2, Pages 272-3. Date, 
8-19-08. 


TAGORE’S RENUNCIATION OF HIS KNIGHTHOOD 


‘“‘The enormity of the measures taken by the Gov- 
ernment in the Punjab for quelling some local dis- 
turbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our 
minds the helplessness of our position as British sub- 
jects in India. The disproportionate severity of the 
punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and 
the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, 
are without parallel in the history of civilized govern- 
ments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent 
and remote. Considering that such treatment has been 
meted out to a population, disarmed and resourceless, 
by a power which has the most terribly efficient or- 
ganization for the destruction of human lives, we must 
strongly assert that it can claim no moral expediency, 
far less moral justification. The accounts of insults 


and sufferings, undergone by our brothers in the Pun- 
jab, have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching 
every corner of India, and the universal agony of 
indignation roused in the hearts of our people has 
been ignored by our rulers,—possibly congratulating 
themselves for imparting, what they imagine as, 
salutary lessons. The time has come when badges 
of honor make our shame glaring in their incongruous 
context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to 
stand shorn of all special distinctions by the side of 
those of my countrymen who, for their so-called in- 
significance, are liable to suffer a degradation not fit 
for human beings.’’ Extract from letter of Rabin- 
dranath Tagore to Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India, 
resigning his title of knighthood. 


BRITISH ADMISSIONS OF INDIAN MISGOVERNMENT = 


INDUSTRIAL STAGNATION 


Question. What is the policy of the British Govern- 
ment regarding the industrial growth of India and why 
has India’s textile trade become almost extinct? 


Answer. ‘‘British policy in India is British trade.’’ 
William Pitt in 1784. 

“The mills of Paisley and Manchester were created by 
the sacrifice of Indian manufacture. Had India been 
independent she could have retaliated. This act of self- 
defense was not permitted her. She was at the mercy 
of the stranger. British goods were forced on her with- 
out paying any duty. The foreign manufacturer em- 
ployed the arm of political injustice to keep down and 
ultimately strangle a competitor with whom he could not 
have contended on equal terms.’’ Mills’ ‘‘ History of 
British India.”’ 


EDUCATION 


Question. Had India a civilization before British rule 
was established there? 


Answer. ‘‘This multitude of men does not consist of 
an abject and barbarous population. They are a people 
for ages civilized and cultivated, cultivated by all the arts 
of polished life while we were yet in the woods.’’ Kd- 
ward Blake. 


Question. Why are the Indian people now 92 per cent, 
illiterate, and why did the British Government spend 
but $18,115,000 on Indian education in 1917, whilst the 
fund for English education was increased by $19,145,000 ? 


Answer. ‘‘We have just lost America from our folly 
in having allowed the establishment of schools and col- 
leges, and .1t would not do for us to repeat the same act 
of folly in regard to India.’’ Director of East India 
Company. 


‘‘The Hindu has such a prodigious memory and is so 
clever at examinations that the Englishman cannot stand 
up against lim.’? Wm. Archer (Pro-British) in his 
‘‘India and the Future.”’ 


‘*Edueation, which will probably be free and com- 
pulsory in Bombay City, will only accentuate the trou- 
ble, for educated men and women will not suffer the con- 
ditions now imposed on the Bombay working classes.’’ 
London Times. 


INCREASING POVERTY 


Question. Why is India ‘‘steadily growing poorer ?’’ 


Answer. ‘‘The increasing poverty of India is due to 
many causes, primarily the decay of handicrafts and the 
substitution of foreign for home manufacture. A further 
cause is the drain from the country. The home charges 
increase from year to year. The annual drafts from 
India to Great Britain, at a moderate computation, 
amount to thirty million pounds. (Note. Roughly 
$150,000,000.) Jt can never be to the advantage of the 
people of India to remit annually this enormous sum to 
a foreign country.’’ Sir Henry Cotton in ‘‘New India.’’ 
Pages 113-115. 1916. 


Question. What is meant by home charges? 


Answer. ‘‘In home charges for the India Office (in 
London) ; for recruiting (in Great Britain for soldiers to 
serve in India); for civil and military pensions (to men 
now living in England, who were formerly in the Indian 
service) ; for pay and allowances on furlough (to men on 
visits to England) ; for private remittances and consign- 
(from India, to England) ; from interest on Indian debt 


(paid to parties in England); and for interest on rail- 
way and other works (paid to shareholders in England), 
there is annually drawn from India and spent in the 
United Kingdom a sum calculated at from twenty-five 
millions to thirty millions of pounds.’’? The late Alfred 
Webb, member of the British House of Commons. 


INDIAN FAMINES 


Question. India produces large quantities of food 
stuffs. Why then do her people starve? What is the 
state of affairs there now? 


Answer. 
of food.’’ 


‘‘India is more liable to devastation by famine than 
other countries because India is steadily growing poorer. 
There are 70,000,000 of continually hungry people in In- 
dia.*’ Sir William Digby, C. I. E. 


“Famine is a providential remedy for over-popula- 
tion.’’ British Official to Wm. J. Bryan. 


‘“The government land-tax assessment does not leave 
enough food to the cultivator to support himself and 
his family throughout the year.’’ Sir William Hunter. 


‘“Appalling conditions prevail throughout India. 32,- 
000,000 deaths (May, 1918—March, 1919) have occurred 
already. 150,000,000 are on the verge of starvation. 
Plague and famine are rampant. Death stalks through- 
out the land. Existing conditions are unparalleled else- 
where in the history of the world. They are indescrib- 
able and ghastly. The cities are peopled by emaciated 
humanity. Traffic has ceased, mails are undelivered and 
business is at a standstill.’’ Toronto Times and Toronto 
Globe. April 24th and 26th, 1919. (Note. The Canadian 
Government immediately suppressed these reports. They 
were deemed to constitute ‘‘tactless publicity.’’) 


INDIA PAYS FOR ITS SUBJUGATION 


“Indian famines are famines of money, not 
Lord George Hamilton. 


Question. What is the Indian army used for, why do 
army estimates Increase so much, and who pays for the 
army’s maintenance ? 


Answer. ‘‘Perhaps the most striking testimony to the 
virtue of benevolent despotism is seen in the employment 
of native races to fight our battles for us.... By a 
master stroke of genius we utilise them fo still further 
extend and also to defend the Empire. It is very largely 
in this way that our Indian Empire has been built up.’’ 
J. G. Goddard, member of the British House of Commons. 


‘‘The Indian divisions arrived in France in time to 
fill a gap that could not otherwise be filled and there con- 
secrated with their blood the unity of India with the 
British Empire. There are a few survivors of those two 
splendid divisions.’’ Lord Harding in House of Lords. 
July, 1917. 


“India was bled absolutely white during the first few 
weeks of the war.’’? Lord Harding in the House of 
Lords. 


‘Justice demands that England should pay a portion 
of the cost of the great Indian army maintained in India 
for Imperial rather than Indian purposes. This has not 
yet been done and famine-stricken India is being bled 
for the maintenance of England’s world-wide Empire.’’ 
The late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, former 
Prime Minister of England. (Note. This criticism of 
the dead «Prime Minister is as applicable today as the 
day he uttered it.) 


4 eee < 
) “ 
: Pe: Mirosil 


‘GOPAL SINGH, 
Secty. Gadar Party. 


EAMONN 
President of Ireland. 


DE VALERA, 


ED GAMMONS, 
Western Secty. F. F. I. 


GADAR PARTY HONORS PRESIDENT DE VALERA 


One of the most interesting functions participated in 
by Eamonn De Valera, President of the Irish Republic, 
during his visit to San Francisco, was the presentation 
to him by Gopal Singh and Jagat Singh, representing 
the Hindustan Gadar Party, of a handsomely engraved 
sword and a large silk flag of the Irish Republic. The 
sword was of silver with the following engraving: 
‘‘Presented to Eamonn De Valera, President of the Irish 
Republic, by the Hindustan Gadar Party of America. 
San Francisco, U. 8. A., July 21, 1919.’’ The flag was 
made of pure silk, six feet wide and nine feet long. 

Ed Gammons, Secretary of the Pacific Coast Branch 
of the Friends of Freedom for India, read the following 
address : 

To Eamonn De Valera, 
President of the Irish Republic. 


Greeting! On behalf of the Hindustan Gadar Party, 
we bid you a hearty welcome. We have a common cause 
and a common enemy. Both of our nations have indis- 
putable claims to nationhood. 


The Indian question almost parallels the Irish one. 
England destroyed the industries of both our countries, 
because they conflicted with her own. She has watched 
our people perish by preventable famine. She has 
sought by the suppression of our languages and customs 
to make ‘‘happy English children’’ of the youth of India 
and Ireland. She has violated every covenant made with 
our peoples. She has kept us in subjection by bayonet, 
martial law and the perpetuation of internal differences. 
Her underground dungeons and unprovoked assassi- 
nations are common to both countries. We were stripped 
of our foodstuffs during the late war, so that democracy 
might triumph. But democracy was denied us, after 
Britain had added considerably more than a million 
miles to her already bloated empire. These are but a 
few of the counts in our common accusation. 


If the ingenuous Cromwell and the historian Lecky 
have, themselves, made out a case for Ireland, we, too, 
shall quote Britishers on the spoliation of India. Speak- 
ing of the operations of the East India Company in, 
Bengal, Lord Clive stated: ‘‘I shall only say that such 
a scene of anarchy, confusion, corruption and extortion 
was never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal; 
nor such and so many fortunes acquired in so unjust 
or rapacious manner.’’ In recent times, Lord Morley, 
himself an Indian official, was incensed at the brutality 
of Indian officialdom. ‘‘Your mention of martial law 
makes my flesh creep,’’ he once wrote Lord Minto, then 
Viceroy of India. ‘‘Martial law is in reality the absence 
of all law.’’ The misgovernment of India began the 
day the first British official landed there and shall doubt- 
less continue till the last one departs. 


It is extremely regrettable that an influential section 
of the American press finds time to slight both our 
causes. Pick up these publications and whilst we find 
boastings of the gigantic bank clearings and unlimited 
prosperity of modern America, we turn to the news 
columns to find that thirty millions of Britain’s subjects 
in India have perished from hunger and plague and that 
the crimes charged against the late Prussian Hmpire 
are being daily duplicated in Ireland. Is it so very 
difficult to imagine that if George Washineton and the 
men of Valley Forge had not expelled Britain, nearly 
one hundred and fifty years ago, the gigantic bank clear- 
ings of today would be but an evanescent dream, famine 
would follow the disappearance of our foodstuffs and 
that the Prussianlike atrocities practiced in Ireland 
would be a daily characteristic of British domination in 
America ? 

The Irish people of America have joined the labor 
movements of the world in protesting against the bar- 
barities recently practiced against our people by Britain, 
and, but a few weeks ago, the California Convention of 
the Friends of Irish Freedom unanimously adopted a 
resolution of protest against the proposed deportation 
of several of our countrymen into the hands of a British 
firing squad in India. 


We are very appreciative of this support and we are 
more than gratified at your consenting to accept this 
small testimonial of our sympathy with the Irish people 
in their struggle for freedom. We congratulate them 
on electing as their chief executive—not a man skilled 
in the diplomatic sophistry of yesterday and unfortu- 
nately of today also—but one who has proved his mettle 
on the field of battle, one who means what he says and 
says what he means. 

Please convey to the Dail Eireann and the Irish People 
on your return our cordial greetings and our sincere 
hope that their splendid fight for freedom will be in- 
dorsed by the whole world. 

THE HINDUSTAN GADAR 
PARTY OF AMERICA. 
San Francisco, Cal. GOPAL SINGH. 
July 21, 1919. JAGAT SINGH. 


President De Valera replied: 


*‘T thank you for your splendid presentation and 1 
gladly accept it. I take it that the sword represents the 
sacred idea of the struggle of both our countries for 
their freedom and the sword is really a sacred weapon 
when used in such a righteous cause. 

‘India is at a big disadvantage in her fight because of 
the monopolization of the avenues of public information 
by British interests. India’s story is in that way sup- 


pressed to a large extent. The Irish are luckier. Our 
men and women are scattered all over the world and 
everywhere they tell the story of Ireland’s oppression 
and exploitation. 

‘*Yon have one big advantage though. That is your 
numbers. With your hundreds of millions organized you 
could quickly gain your independence. That is your 
ereat problem—organization! Of course England will 
seek to perpetuate internal differences, magnify them 
if at all possible and then say that she must stay in India 
te maintain order. That’s an old game of hers. But 
you must forget internal differences and customs in order 
to present a united front to the enemy. Everything 
should be sacrificed in the interest of unity. 


BRITISH PROMISES AND 


The agitation for the emasculation of the Montagu 
reform scheme now in progress, is not a surprise to India. 
British promises to India are not made to be kept. They 
are dictated by political expediency and afterwards con- 
veniently forgotten. 

Prior to the crowning of King George the Fifth as 
Emperor of India, on December 12, 1911, there was 
considerable unrest. This was partially allayed by a 
‘“‘momentous dispatch,’’ sent to the Marquis of Crewe, 
Secretary of State for India, by Lord Harding, the 
Governor-General of India. 

“Tt is certain that in the course of time,’’ said Lord 
Harding, ‘‘the just demands of Indians for a larger 
share in the government of their country will have to be 
satisfied, and the question will be how this devolution of 
power can be conceded without impairing the supreme 
authority of the Governor-General in Council. The 
only possible solution of the difficulty would appear to 
be gradually to give the Provinces a larger measurement 
of self-government, until at last India would consist of a 
number of administrations, autonomous in all provincial 
affairs, with the Government of India above them all, 
and possessing power to interfere in cases of misgovern- 
ment, but ordinarily restricting its functions to mat- 
ters of Imperial concern.”’ 


CHRISTIAN ENGLAND’S 


‘““Very soon after the battle of Plassey (1757) the 
Bengal plunder began to arrive in London. Probably 
since the world began, no investment has yielded the 
profit from the Indian plunder. The amount of 
treasure wrung from the conquered people and trans- 
ferred from India to English banks between Plassey 
and Waterloo (fifty-seven years) has been variously 
estimated at from $2,500,000,000 to $5,000,000,000. 


‘The Irish People recognize the justice of your fight 
and are heartily with you. . Your cause is just. The 
democratic forces of the world stand behind you.”’ 

For almost half an hour President De Valera discussed 
every phase of the Indian situation with the deputation. 
He surprised his visitors by his thorough knowledge of 
Indian problems. When told that the recent massacres 
of unarmed Indians, who were protesting against the 
enactment of the infamous Rowlatt Bills, had solidly 
united Mohammedan and Hindu against the British 
Government, he expressed keen satisfaction. ‘‘That’s 
good news,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m very glad to hear it.’’ 

The deputation then withdrew after a cordial good-bye. 


BRITISH PERFORMANCES 


After the ‘‘King-Emperor’’ had returned to Buck- 
ingham Palace and whilst Indian ‘‘moderates’’ were 
still enthusing over the pledged word of the ‘‘mother 
country,’’ the Marquis Crewe glibly repudiated Lord 
Harding’s pledge in an uncompromising speech in the 
House of Lords on June 24th, 1912. 

‘“Thére is a certain section in India,’’ he said, ‘‘ which 
looks forward to a measure of self-government approach- 
ing to that which has been granted to the Dominions. 
I see no future for India along these lines. The experi- 
ment of a measure of self-government, practically free 
from parliamentary control, to a race which is not our 
own, even though that race enjoys the advantages of the 
best services of men belonging to our race, is one which 
cannot be tried. It is my duty as Secretary of State to 
repudiate the idea that Lord Harding’s dispatch implies 
anything of the kind as the hope or goal of the policy 
of the Government.’’ 

On July 29th, in another speech in the House of 
Lords, the Marquis of Crewe emphasized his stand. ‘‘ The 
maintenance and perpetual continuance of British rule 
is the best way of securing the happiness of the Indian 
people,’’ he stated. 

What an excellent example of what Nietzsche terms 
master morality! 


DEBUT IN PAGAN INDIA 


The methods of embezzlement and plunder, by which 
every Briton in India enriched himself during the 
earlier history of the East India Company gradually 
passed away, but the drain did not pass away. The 
difference between the earlier day and the present is 
that India’s tribute to England is obtained by ‘in- 
direct methods’ under forms of law.’? Adam Brooks 
in Laws of Civilization and Decay. 


SLAVERY COSTS MORE THAN INDE- 
PENDENCE 


In 1918-19 India paid almost four times as much for 
her army employed ‘‘to stil further extend and defend 
the Empire’’ than Japan, an independent nation, did on 
her army employed to advance the interests of Japan. 

Indian Attys mere | $219,750,000. 
oJ ADANOSE GAT RY ge dn oa oece oh Pasa 57,306,500. 


“THE STRANGLING OF A COMPETITOR” 
Cotton Imported to Great Britain. 


BB 2 Neate Sadie rahe MORIN oct emd a: nd 1,266,608 pieces. 
Yn 45 ee i Sail AR gat "anal digae ved 306,086 pieces. 
British Cotton Exported to India. 

Bei te AR Ch NR nae tie 5 ih 818,208 yards. 
ES AA Ae es ae eee ae 51,777,277 yards. 


SHIPBUILDING ABOLISHED 


India, being an old maritime nation, built her own 
ships. In 1857 she turned out 34,286 ships with a, ton- 
nage of 1,219,958 tons. In 1863 England, having then 
completely gobbled up India, abolished the shipbuilding 
industry. In 1912 India’s entire merchant fleet con- 
sisted of 130 ships of 80 tons each. Comment is un- 
necessary. 


** As the Lord liveth, England does not seek a yard 
of territory. We are in this war from motives of 
purest chivalry, to defend the weak.’’ ‘David Lloyd 
George, 11-10-1914. England received over 1,400,000 
miles of additional territory as a result of the ‘‘demo- 
cratic’’ peace conference. 


THE TRAITOR WITHIN THE GATES 


If anything has served to keep India illiterate, servile 
and enslaved it is the educated Indian, who, alive to 
the soul-killing oppression of an alien government, 
has crawled, fawningly, to the feet- of England’s sov- 
ereigus and received reward for his treachery to the 
national ideal. This type of Indian is termed a 
‘‘moderate.’’ Here is a pen picture of one, Lord 
Sinha, now sitting in the British House of Lords, 
drawn from a speech he delivered to the Indian Na- 
tional Congress, held at Bombay in December, 1915: 

‘““My first duty is to lay at the feet of our august 
and beloved Sovereign (King George the Fifth of 
England), our unswerving fealty, our unshaken al- 
legiance and our enthusiastic homage. And we desire 
to express our gratitude to Almighty God for shield- 
ing our beloved Emperor. May he live to lead his 
people and promote their happiness and prosperity. 
India, her princes and her people have vied with each 
other in rallying around the Imperial standard, when 
the enemies of the Empire counted on disaffection and 
internal troubles. The spectacle affords a striking 
proof of the wisdom of those statesmen who have in 
recent years guided the destiny of the British Em- 
pire in India. The path is long and de- 
vious and we shall have to tread weary steps before 
we get to the promised land (self-government). I 
yield to none in my desire to get self-government, but 
there 1s a wide gulf between desire and attainment. 

The Government has not only ignored, but 
has put positive obstacles in the way of the people 
acquiring or retaining a spirit of national self-help. 
, The Indians (taken into the regular army 
because there were not enough English troops) though 


BRITONS ON THE 


“The Rowlatt Bills have cemented the people of 
India.’’ Secretary of. State for India Montagu. 

‘The Rowlatt Bills rob Indians of all freedom of 
speech, freedom of press, freedom of public meeting.”’ 
Robert Smillie, famous British labor leader. 

‘“‘The Rowlatt Bills are surversive of the principles 
of liberty and justice and destructive of the elementary 


they may now obtain the highest badge of valor, viz., 
the Victoria Cross, not one of them can receive a 
commission in His Majesty’s Army—irrespective ‘of 
birth or bravery, education or efficiency. ; 
While the humblest European and even the negro Has 
the right to carry arms, the law of the land denies 
the privilege of possessing or carrying arms to the most 
law-abiding and respectableIndian. Not only will the 
galing sense of racial inferiority and the overt im- 
putation of universal disloyalty be removed by such 
a measure (abolishment of the Arms act) but people 
will also get rid of onerous disabilities in the way of 
defending themselves against the attacks of wild 
animals, as well as lawless adversaries. After 
nearly two centuries of British rule India has been 
brought today to the same emasculated condition as the 
Britons were in the beginning of the fifth century. 
We are seeking to regain our lost self-re- 

Are the 250,000,000 of Indian culti- 
their 


spect, 
vators to go on paying 30, 40 and 50% for 
finances for hundreds of years to come? 4 
Rich in all the resources of nature India continues to 
be the poorest country in the world.-. I will 
venture to say that the solution of the problem (com- 
merciat development) can no longer be safely post- 
poned. It will test, as no other question has done, the 
altruism of English statesmanship, for in promoting 
and protecting Indian industries, it may become neces- 
sary to sacrifice the interests even of English manu- 
facturers. Under the benign dispensation of 
an inscrutable Providence, we shall emerge into a new 
era of peace and goodwill, and our beloved Mother- 
land will occupy an honored place in the Empire with 
which her fortunes are indissolubly linked.’’ 


ROWLATT BILLS 


rights of the individual.’’ Colonel Wedgewood, mem- 
ber of the British House of Commons. 

‘“‘The intention of the Rowlatt Bills is the strength- 
ening of the satraps of India so that they will be able 
to put their hands upon anyone likely to be danger- 
ous.’’ Neil McLean, also member of the House of 
Commons. 


LIQUOR FORCED ON INDIA 


““Previous to the era of British dominion, the inhabi- 
tants of India were among the most abstemious of 
peoples. 

‘““W.S. Caine stated in the House of Commons in 1888, 
‘The government 1s driving the Indian liquor trade as 
hard as it can. If the government continues its present 
policy of doubling its revenue every ten years, in thirty 
years India will be one of the most drunken and de- 


English soldiers in India were recently compelled to 
act as strike-breakers when Indian postoffice employes 
in Calcutta went on strike. 


Of the 400 Hindus who sought to enter Canada in 
1914, 60 were shot after their deportation to India. 


graded countries on the face of the earth.’ 

‘In the vicinity of Bombay a movement was started 
among the country people against the use and sale of 
liquor, whereupon eight of the leaders were imprisoned. 

‘‘Archbishop Jeffries (31 years in India) stated; ‘For 
one converted Christian as the proof of Christian labor, 
ingland has made a thousand drunkards.’ ’’? From the 
American Encyclopaedia on Temperance. 


“To remain in Egypt in violation of our solemn 
pledge would make the English character contemptible 
in the eyes of the whole world.’’ Late Sir Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman, British Prime Minister. You, 
of course, know how this pledge was kept! 


DEATH STILL FACES DEPORTEES 


To THe AMERICAN PEOPLE: 


We are still in danger of death at the hands of the 
British Government. The protests of Organized Labor, 
the protests of American Liberals of every shade of 
opinion, the protests even of some of your representa- 
tives in the National Congress—all of these are, as 
yet, unavailing against the urge of the British Gov- 
ernment that we be deported back to India, there to 
face the firing squad or the public hangman. It is 
not by any means an acceptable task to perform, but 
we must point out that Great Britain has a consider- 
able influence in matters of this description and that 
to overcome that influence a weightier one must be 


brought into action at once. That influence is at 
your disposal. It is your will. You constitute the 
court of final appeal. You will be heard. YOU 


MUST BE HEARD! 


India has been spurred into revolt. It is not a 
purposeless revolt, nor yet an armed one. It ts the 
defiance of an unarmed nation, whose industries have 
been destroyed, whose educational facilities have been 
wiped out and illiteracy fostered so that our people 
might be pointed out as unfit for self-government. 
whose people have been decimated by preventable 
famine and plague. Can you visualize thirty-two 
millions of our dead in less than one year, not mown 
down by machine guns or the other martial imple- 
ments of our oppressors, but dying of sheer starvation 
and plague when the highest exportation of foodstuffs 
in the history of our country took place? That is 
what occurred in India. 


How long would an administration last in Amer- 
ica which shot down 1600 out of 6000 unarmed Ameri- 
cans, who meet to protest against the acts of that 
administration? How long would Americans allow 
an administration -to last, which abolished trial by 
jury, deprived one accused of the right of counsel, 
legalized torture and conducted this farcial ‘‘trial’’ 
in camera? How long would Americans obey a Brit- 
ish edict to descend from street-car and automobile 
and grovel in the dust before every British officer who 
came along? How long would America watch her 
women and children die eating herbs and _ grass, 
whilst her grain was shipped by the million tons to 
Great Britain? This is but a brief description of the 
condition of India today! 


Great Britain desires to quell our voice in America. 
She hates to hear the truth told about her terroristic 
government of India. She would hurl us into our 
graves in her vain rage to crush hope and truth. Can 
that be done in free America? The spirits of the 
immortal Lincoln and of the great Jefferson seem 
to say: ‘‘These libertarians of old India are safe on 
our shores. America’s traditions enshroud them. No 
foreign power can compel or entice the violation of 
the hospitality of this free nation’’. 


TARAKNATH Das, D. K. SArKAr, 
GopaL SINGH, SANTOKH SINGH, 
BHAGWAN SINGH, S..N. GHOSE. 


~ LABOR’S ROLL OF HONOR 


An entire list of the labor bodies of America, which 
protested against our deportation, would fill many 
pages of this pamphlet. The most prominent, how- 
ever, are: 

The Executive Council of the American Federation of 
Labor. 

Central Federated Union of New York. 

Chicago Federation of Labor. 

Seattle Central Labor Couneil. 

San Joaquin, Cal., Labor Council. 

3rownsville, Pa., Trades Couneil, 

Tacoma Central Labor Council. 

Boilermakers No. 233, Oakland. 

Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. 

Boilermakers’ Union No, 6, San Francisco. 

Contra Costa, Cal., Labor Council. 

San Francisco Central Labor Couneil. 

Detroit Federation of Labor. 

Alameda, Cal., Central Labor Couneil. 

Alameda Building Trades Couneil. 

Street Railway Employes No. 518, San Francisco. 

Soldiers and Sailors’ Union, Seattle. 


Machinists’ Lodge No. 68, San Francisco. 
Molders’ Union No. 164, San Francisco. 

Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, San Francisco. 
Pasadena, Cal., Board of Labor. 

Micrometer Lodge Machinists, New York. 
Millmen’s Union No. 262, San Jose, Cal. 

Erie, Pa., Central Labor Union. 

Millmen’s Union No. 42, San Francisco. 

Bridge and Structural Ironworkers, Pittsburg, Pa. 
Office Employes No. 13,188, San Francisco. 


The action of the California Convention of the 
Friends of Irish Freedom in unanimously adopting a 
resolution protesting against our deportations, was 
copied by numerous branches of the widespread Irish 
organization, headed by the Commodore John Barry 
and the New York Local Councils. The Irish Pro- 
gressive League of New York, the Catholic Women’s 
League of Pittsburg, Pa., and many other Irish and 
Catholic organizations have done likewise. We grate- 
fully acknowledge their prompt and sympathetic ac- 
tion. 


Anyone wishing to assist the defense of the above six members of this organization may forward funds 
either to us or to the Friends of Freedom for India, Room 601, 7 East 15th street, New York City, the only 


organizations in charge of these cases. 
India’’, 


CONTENTS. 


Copies of this pamphlet and the preceding one, ‘‘The Tragedy of 
can be obtained absolutely tree by communicating with us. 


PRESS MAY FREELY REPRODUCE 


Hindustan Gadar Party, 5 Wood street, San Francisco, Cal. 


